


Over & Over

by ashtin



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Churchboy Hyunjin, M/M, Music major Seungmin, Seungmin just wants to sing, Slice of Life, Swimmer Hyunjin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:13:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26462473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashtin/pseuds/ashtin
Summary: Seungmin mentally apologized to the members of the crowd he might have unknowingly stared down while he was singing. He couldn’t recall any faces in particular, but he knew he’d done it.-Hyunjin’s head shot up when the intro to the song began and his breath caught in his throat. The voice, or rather, the face that belonged to the voice, stared right back at him.
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Hwang Hyunjin/Kim Seungmin, Lee Felix/Seo Changbin, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 37





	Over & Over

Seungmin lowered his microphone as the background music faded away into nothing, soon replaced by a polite applause from the young churchgoers in attendance for the morning sermon. The same sermon that Seungmin had _accidentally_ tuned out of more than once in the hour leading up to his “Special Music” performance.

He’d sat in the front row pew, not only because it was conveniently close to the altar, his stage, but to prevent himself an hour’s worth of awkward eye-contact with said churchgoers from his previous designated seat upon the stage itself. One of his friends mentioned he should invest in a bible to at least _look_ as if he was interested in the sermons or being moved by the Word when he used to still sit in his designated seat. Seungmin argued he shouldn’t have to waste his money. If the student ministry didn’t even _pay_ him to sing there in the first place, why should he invest the money he earned from his actual job in order to _pretend_ he looked the part when everyone already knew he wasn’t there for the good Word anyway?

Seungmin mentally apologized to the members of the crowd he might have unknowingly stared down while he was singing. He couldn’t recall any faces in particular, but he knew he’d done it. His friends had never failed to call him out on it countless times after past performances -he personally chose to burn the memory of accidentally serenading his calculus professor at a campus-wide event during his freshman year- and he knew they would probably bring it up again over lunch, today.

His eyes scanned the crowd of young adults as the speaker thanked him for his performance and made his way back to his spot on the front pew. Not a single face stood out, none of his friends regularly attended the weekly student-run church sermons, but they would sometimes make the trip to watch him sing. Today was not one of those days, he realized as his eyes scanned the last couple of rows toward the back of the small tabernacle.

His left eye twitched.

He spied the shining necklace hung loosely around a boy’s neck. It had caught the light at just the right angle causing a flash right in Seungmin’s eyes. He didn’t think anything of it and took his seat in the front row, as per usual, and zoned out for the remaining half hour of sermon and worship.

‒ 

“Seungmiiiiiin!” A bright and cheery voice greeted Seungmin the second he set foot inside the Subway on campus. It was a two minute walk from the Church of Christ Student Center and _very_ convenient when his friends wanted to meet for lunch after sermons.

Minho and Chan were seated in a booth against one of the large front windows, both with their sandwich orders still wrapped in the bag and chips packets sealed. Seungmin smiled at the small gesture of them waiting for him before eating and walked to the counter to place his own order.

“Turkey and veggies, again?” Chan questioned before Seungmin could even pull his sandwich from the flimsy plastic bag. He was just impressed that the cashier had managed to stuff at least twenty napkins in the bag along with his sandwich and an order of three cookies. Seungmin had originally told himself he would only buy _one_ cookie, but it was rare for their shop to have the raspberry and white chocolate chip cookies in, and _fresh_ ones at that! He figured he was at least disciplined enough to only eat one with his lunch and save the other two for later on.

“How’d you guess?” He smiled sweetly while he unwrapped the turkey sub. It was extra loaded with veggies, which paired fantastically with a dash of olive oil and sprinkled salt and pepper for taste.

“You literally get the same exact thing every time, Seung. It’s not exactly a wild guess at this point, y’know.”

“You know, I don’t make fun of your staple Meatball Marinara.” Seungmin sniffed in Chan’s direction where the other was beginning to unwrap his own sub.

“Actually, you _both_ have pretty boring choices.”

“ _Shut up, Minho_.” The other two answered in unison.

“Wow. I am feeling _so_ attacked right now.” Minho dramatically dropped his chips packet onto the table with a frown that screamed feign offence.

The bell for the entrance panged loudly and Minho nearly knocked Seungmin in the head in attempt to climb over him and out of their booth seat. Seungmin didn’t miss the way Minho’s eyes lit up at the chime, nor did he bother to mention it, either.

“Jisungiiiie! I’m so glad you’re here, these two are bullying me!” Minho draped himself over the newcomer, earning a few questioning glances from workers and other customers. Neither boy paid them any mind, while the two oldest still sat at the table with matching knowing looks.

Jisung, one of the youngest of their friend-group, patted Minho’s head in feigned comfort. “There, there... “ He pulled back to look the elder in the eyes after he scanned the contents of their table. “Were you making fun of their sandwich choices again?”

Minho pouted and gave Jisung the biggest puppy-dog eyes he could muster up. It was no secret that the younger had an extreme weak spot for Minho’s pretty eyes, and the older was going to use it to his advantage at any given chance. He bat his long eyelashes for good measure, and it was like magic, the way Jisung’s accusatory expression practically melted into something so uncontrollably fond.

Seungmin rolled his eyes while Chan gagged at the two not even a foot away from their table.

“Get a room, you two!” Chan exclaimed and playfully reached out to shove Minho forward which caused him to dramatically fall into the younger’s arms.

The two looked near about to kiss when the entry bell chimed once again, signaling the arrival of a couple boys Seungmin vaguely recognized as members from Jisung’s other circle of friends.

The younger boy had only recently started to hang around Minho while Chan and Seungmin were present. In the past, he had only come near enough to mutter a shy ‘hello’ before running back over to his original posse. 

Jisung began to slowly open up to the other two boys over some time, and eventually gained enough confidence to back them up when they teased Minho, just to get a rise out of his ‘not-boyfriend’ - a bullshit title both circles of friends had taken to labeling each of their dummies, respectively. There were secret bets placed on who would confess first and how long it would be until they were finally official. Seungmin’s bet was one-hundred percent on Jisung, but as to when, he had no clue.

The arrival of Jisung’s friends meant absolute madness would soon follow, and Seungmin decided it was definitely time to hole himself up in a study room at the library until Changbin, the fourth installment of his immediate friend troupe, forcefully dragged him back to their shared dorm room. Because, “contrary to popular belief, it’s quite impossible to get an adequate night’s sleep on the hard desktop surface, yet questionably comfortable desk chairs” that were supplied in every study room on the sixth floor of the library.

Seungmin properly excused himself, which earned apologetic looks from both Chan and Minho. Both knew of his extreme dislike of loud crowds and even the possibility of causing a scene. And if there were any nice way to describe Jisung’s other group of friends, ‘loud and high possibility of causing a scene’ wouldn’t even begin to cover them.

He quickly finished off his turkey & veg, and packed away two of his three cookies into his bag.

“See ya around, Seungminnie!” Jisung said in a sing-song voice, an unspoken apology in his eyes. Seungmin only shook his head with a reassuring smile and waved goodbye to his friends and then to Jisung, who had already turned to get in line to order with his friends.

‒ 

The walk to the library only took slightly longer than that of the walk from the sermon to the Subway, but Seungmin took the extra time to appreciate the scenery along the way. He took the two crosswalks with caution, nibbling at his cookie along the way. Once he had a clear shot toward the library he took out his phone to browse through the assignments that had been updated, pending grades, and e-mails he’d exchanged with a couple of his professors.

He hadn’t bothered with looking up when he heard rapid footsteps approaching from ahead of him… And that was how his first cookie crumbled.

Something solid, _someone_ solid, collided into Seungmin, hard.

“Oof!” The stranger moved quickly, apologies spewing left and right as he gathered the papers he’d dropped on impact.

“It’s okay…” Seungmin mumbled, still staring at the cookie that laid on the concrete sidewalk in crumbles.

“I really should have been paying more attention...ugh. You fell pretty hard, are you okay?” The boy’s words were quick and frantic. Seungmin noted that the boy was probably still kneeling in front of him because he thought something was wrong since Seungmin had yet to bother picking his ass up off of the ground.

“No- yeah. I’m fi-” Seungmin coughed, nearly choking on air mixed with his own saliva when he looked up at the boy’s face.

He was beautiful, breathtakingly so, Seungmin could testify as much.

The boy’s jet-black hair shined brilliantly underneath the the harsh afternoon sunshine, and Seungmin cursed himself six different ways when he let his eyes wander about the rest of the boy’s face.

Sleek eyes with a single mole that sat right under the left side; Seungmin found it absolutely adorable. Plump lips that were far too pink and pretty to be fair to someone as average as Seungmin found himself to be.

And then… the boy _smiled._

Seungmin knew he would be doomed from that moment on.

“-hospital?”

Seungmin blinked up at the boy and stared dumbly, having missed whatever he had just asked him entirely. “What?”

The boy smiled again and Seungmin’s stomach swooped at the radiant sight.

“I asked if I should bring you to the hospital? ...You know, just to make sure you didn’t get a concussion or anything.”

Seungmin shook his head and stood when the boy offered out his hand for him. “I’m fine. Sorry for running into you and causing you to worry.” He took a step backward… right into the pile of cookie crumbles that littered the ground around them. Seungmin glanced down at the pile with a small frown.

“Let me buy you another cookie. I was actually on my way to meet friends at Subway, anyway!” The other’s necklace glinted in the sunlight that broke through the shade of the trees next to the sidewalk. Seungmin spied the silver cross that hung loosely on a thick chain and admired it for a moment before answering him.

Seungmin smiled politely at the offer, but declined with a smile. “Thank you, but that’s alright. I didn’t need the cookie, honestly.” He purposefully left out the part where he still had two more cookies safely packed away in his bag.

The boy bit at his lip in thought and Seungmin felt near faint at the sight.

“Hyunjin! Come on dude, let’s _go_ !” A blonde boy with a very surprising deep voice came from behind Seungmin and tugged on the other boy - _Hyunjin’s?-_ sleeve, successfully dragging him back the way Seungmin had just come from. 

“See you around! Sorry, again!” Hyunjin called back while still letting himself be dragged in the opposite direction. He didn’t turn around until Seungmin gave him a small wave, the boy’s smile nearly doubling at the gesture before he whipped around to follow his friend.

Seungmin didn’t register the burn that sat high on his cheeks until he turned back toward the library. What had just happened to him?

 _Who on Earth wrote this cliche?_ He thought to himself as he neared the entrance of the library.

‒ 

“Wow, that was adorable.” Felix laughed and pulled Hyunjin by the sleeve of his loose-fitted white button-up dress shirt.

Hyunjin’s cross tinkled against its silver chain when he surged forward and fell into step with the other. He hoped he had done an okay job of hiding his internal fan-boying through the entire encounter with the other boy.

Hyunjin tried his damnedest to attend the weekly sermons, but he often only had the time to make it to the ones held on Wednesday evenings. He liked one just as fine as the other and held no real preference between the two. _But,_ if there was one single thing he liked just _that_ much better about the Sunday sermons, it was the addition of the ‘ _Special Music_ ’ corner. He’d heard that the singers often changed, but one certain performer seemed to be a recurring guest.

Hyunjin had only been in attendance once before today when the certain singer had performed. He’d been blown away by the voice and was left craving to hear more, the boy’s voice having been an absolute earworm that, try as he might, Hyunjin could _not_ satisfy.

He searched faces in the crowd of the Wednesday night gathering every week, like clockwork. He sat at the back so that he could watch the faces as they walked into the worship center from all entrances. He would be crestfallen each time the sermon began and there had been no sign of the beautiful voice anywhere. Hyunjin could only sigh and flip his bible open to whatever verse of a chapter from whichever book the speaker had planned their sermon around and did his best to follow along.

Hyunjin sat in the last pew, once again, for the Sunday morning service. Though this time it was not so that he could look for the face that belonged to the melody he could not rid himself of. But because Felix had offered to join him late the night before when Hyunjin had revealed his Sunday plans. The two of them had both ran late while trying to get ready, which resulted in the pair rushing in and taking the first seats they spotted right as the speaker had began talking.

Hyunjin had not even had the time to pick up a Sunday morning program, but it wouldn’t have helped him any since he never learned the name of the voice the _first_ time around.

He looked to where the singer had sat up on the stage before and felt his mood drop. The seat for the Special Music guest was empty.

Hyunjin really wished he’d gotten a program to know if there would even be a singer today.

Still, he sucked it up and cracked the spine of his bible, thumbing through the pages until he found the correct spot and read along with the speaker.

Hyunjin had pulled his phone out not even fifteen minutes in; his bible lay untouched from the page they’d started with. He had not expected the first half of the sermon to be almost identical to the one he’d sat through the Wednesday before.

He had been so immersed in the game he was playing that Hyunjin completely missed the introduction of the Special Music corner along with the guest’s name.

His head shot up when the intro to the song began and his breath caught in his throat.

The _voice,_ or rather, the face that belonged to the voice, stared right back at him. Not once did he break eye contact through the song’s intro.

He couldn’t believe his luck when he ran headfirst into the same face and caused him to fall to the ground. 

“I’m an idiot.” Hyunjin sighed as the pair waited their turn in line to give their orders. 

“Wasn’t he the dude you’re like in lo- oof!”

Hyunjin’s elbow connected with Felix’s side none too gently.

“Bro, what I’m trying to say is that I think I recognize him! I’ve seen him hanging around with Changbin and his other group of friends before.” 

Hyunjin glanced over at the two booths filled with his friends and Felix’s boyfriend and friends talking and cutting up loudly. “I can try and get his name for you… if you want, anyway.” Felix said before stepping forward and giving his order to the worker. 

Hyunjin knew his answer before Felix was even finished making the offer, but he decided to wait on giving his best friend said answer. He didn’t want to seem too eager and rush the blonde boy into asking Changbin, which could, in turn, cause the older boy to become suspicious. The _last_ thing Hyunjin needed was his best friend’s nosy boyfriend playing matchmaker when he didn’t even know if his beautiful voice crush man with the cute smile and bright eyes was gay.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! 
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/lovelyjjix)  
> [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/lovelyjjix)


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